KINGSTON, N.Y. -- Former Mayor James Sottile's usual Sunday trip to pick up a newspaper and coffee turned into a harrowing dash into a two-family house where a fire was raging.

Sottile said he had pulled his car to a stop at flashing light at Linderman and Washington Avenue at about 11:45 a.m. Sunday, just as the call was coming in to the Kingston Fire Department.

"I saw the flames and large amount of smoke and I pulled over and I saw a lot of people running in all different directions," Sottile recalled in a telephone interview Monday. "I heard people saying, 'Where is he? Where is he?' and I thought somebody was in the building."

Sottile said he then saw Kingston Police Officer Mark Wikane, 55, run into the burning wood-frame residence at 12 Linderman Ave., which shortly become the scene of a three-alarm fire.

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Sottile said he followed the veteran cop inside before firefighters arrived.

"He immediately entered the house and led the way," Sottile said. "I just followed him. I felt obligated to go with him. You just don't think about it. You just react."

Sottile said heavy smoke poured through the building, while flames flickered throughout. He said the building had become extremely hot inside.

"We were just screaming and banging and trying to find anybody that might have been in there," Sottile said.

After just minutes, it got too hot and the two men escaped from the building.

All of the occupants, it turned out, had left the building before Sottile and the officer ran inside, the former mayor said.

Still, there was more to be done.

Sottile said that he and Wikane noticed "quite a few" barbecue grills and propane tanks against the back of the house. The two, Sottile said, moved the grills away from the structure.

"I held my jacket over Officer Wikane because of the flames and he moved the tanks," Sottile said. "He was in total charge. He really knew what to do."

Sottile had served as the city's chief executive for nearly 10 years. In 2011, he decided not to seek re-election.

Wikane, the city police officer, was injured when debris from the burning interior fell on his right arm and vest. He was treated at HealthAlliance Hospital, Broadway Campus, and later released.

Two families were left homeless by the fire, which Kingston Fire Chief John Reinhardt said left the building "uninhabitable." Reinhardt said one of the families declined assistance.

The Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the American Red Cross has stepped in to help the other family.

Caroline Boardman, the agency's communications director, said tenants were being put up at a local hotel for three days and receiving financial assistance for food, clothing and shoes.

Reinhardt said Monday that the investigation so far has determined that the fire was the result of "careless smoking."

"It looks like the cigarette was left burning in the bed and the person left the dwelling. My investigators definitely feel that it started in the bed," he said.

Kingston firefighters, who had the blaze under control by 12:55 p.m., had to deal with gusty winds, which blew the flames right back at them, and heavy smoke.

Linda Leonardo, the mother of tenant Suzanne Kain, said her daughter, who lived on the first floor, lost everything in the fire. She said Kain and her five grandchildren, ranging in age from 18 months to 16 years, were staying at the Garden Plaza Hotel in Kingston. Kain's fiance, Nick Watzka, was also staying with the family in adjoining rooms.

Leonardo, who lives in Florida, said she and her other daughter, Amanda Gavner, are asking anyone who wants to donate to the family to email Gavner at copperheads@hvc.rr.com.

"It's very hard for her," Leonardo said of Kain. "She kind of had a little nervous breakdown today. Stuff is stuff and it can be replaced, but it's so hard to watch your house burn down."